Tech firms need to make wearables more fashionable, says Beecham

A recent report by Beecham Research has stated that technology companies do not have the right approach to wearable technology. According to the researchers, tech firms are placing too much on asthetics and functionality, but are not combining the aspects properly.

Beecham highlights that companies cannot drive the wearable technology trend, as they also need to look at what people actually want to wear. 'Wearable devices are not the next evolution of smartphone,' said Saverio Romero, principal analyst for Beecham Research. 'We see wearable tech as playing a critical role in the drive to greater connectivity and the internet of things, where we will interact with intelligent spaces through wearable devices.'

Claire Duke Wolley, fashion technology analyst at Beecham Research, said that wearable products were not originally accepted by consumers as there is no way to adapt how they look - if consumers do not like the look of a product, they are less likely to wear it, she said.

Apple's first iPhone wasn’t the most technologically advanced smartphone available at the time, said Wolley, but the company created a really good combination of functionality and style and core branding, and really understood its consumer.

Even when employees are required to wear devices for work, they are still more likely to benefit from them more if they enjoy wearing and using them, said Wolley. 'Consumers don’t just buy technology because it’s good for them, we don’t like buying things people tell us we need and we don’t really buy things that people tell us are good for us, we buy things because they have an intrinsic value to use individually.'

The wearable technology industry will be worth $3bn by 2018, according to Beecham's forecasts.